Can't access \\"PC Name", but can access \\"Lan IP"?

[Frankenburger]

As the title suggests, I have a shared folder on my media server. The PC name shows up in the Network window, but when I try to connect to it through the network window or by entering the name in Explorer, Windows reports the network path is not found. However, if I substitute the PC name with the PC's LAN IP, it lets me connect just fine.

 

Thoughts?

 

[AnonymousGuy]

Make sure your network connection's DNS server is set to use your router's IP address.  If you override it to point to 1.1.1.1 or whatever then your PC will have no method of resolving the names of other computers on your network (that's information that the Router knows).  If you want to use a 3rd party DNS you should change your router settings, not your PC settings.

[Frankenburger]

26 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Make sure your network connection's DNS server is set to use your router's IP address.  If you override it to point to 1.1.1.1 or whatever then your PC will have no method of resolving the names of other computers on your network (that's information that the Router knows).  If you want to use a 3rd party DNS you should change your router settings, not your PC settings.

I just gave it a shot on my laptop, and my laptop was able to connect just fine. Definitely something isolated within my desktop.

 

I checked the DNS settings for my desktop, and it's set to automatically detect, same as my laptop.

[Mr Technician]

I'm having this issue was well with my main desktop with my dns set to "auto" (on the router I'm using 192.168.0.110 and 1.1.1.1 for primary/secondary). For me it started after a windows update. I have also experienced something similar when using my vpn to connect to my desktop from my laptop away from home: I can use the ip to use rdp but the hostname fails to connect.

[Guest]

What OS is the media server? Could be an SMB1 issue - seen problems where you can’t connect via hostname but that primarily affects SBS / 03 and maybe 08 Windows server versions. 

[Frankenburger]

5 minutes ago, Windspeed36 said:

What OS is the media server? Could be an SMB1 issue - seen problems where you can’t connect via hostname but that primarily affects SBS / 03 and maybe 08 Windows server versions. 

The server is running your run of the mill Windows 10 Home.

[AnonymousGuy]

Are both computers set to home/private network?

[Frankenburger]

1 minute ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Are both computers set to home/private network?

Yes. Also, file sharing is enabled and password protection is disabled on both.

 

It's definitely a setting on my desktop though. My laptop can connect without issue.

[AnonymousGuy]

Try manually disabling windows firewall on the desktop.  And if that fails delete the network card out of device manager and let windows rediscover and readd it (to effectively wipe any custom settings).

[Frankenburger]

3 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Try manually disabling windows firewall on the desktop.  And if that fails delete the network card out of device manager and let windows rediscover and readd it (to effectively wipe any custom settings).

Windows Firewall was already disabled. Deleting and re-adding the card didn't make a difference.

[Mikensan]

fire up command prompt, do a nslookup HOSTNAME - verify it can properly resolve it. Windows will also use NETBIOS over broadcast, which won't work if you're on different subnets.

 

 

[Mikensan]

*also is network discovery enabled on both?

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-configure-network-discovery-windows-10-0

[Frankenburger]

3 hours ago, Mikensan said:

fire up command prompt, do a nslookup HOSTNAME - verify it can properly resolve it. Windows will also use NETBIOS over broadcast, which won't work if you're on different subnets.

 

 

This is what I get in response.

 

3 hours ago, Mikensan said:

*also is network discovery enabled on both?

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-configure-network-discovery-windows-10-0

Yes. That was the first thing I enabled. I also enabled the Function Discovery services and set them to auto thinking that might have something to do with it.

[Mikensan]

13 hours ago, Frankenburger said:

This is what I get in response.

 

Yes. That was the first thing I enabled. I also enabled the Function Discovery services and set them to auto thinking that might have something to do with it.

Does your desktop actually have both of those IP addresses? The third octet is different, 244 vs 254.

 

** I'm an idiot, it's resolving them to public IP addresses so it is definitely a DNS issue.

[Frankenburger]

1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

Does your desktop actually have both of those IP addresses? The third octet is different, 244 vs 254.

No. You can see the IPv4 of the server in the original pic.

[Frankenburger]

1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

Does your desktop actually have both of those IP addresses? The third octet is different, 244 vs 254.

Also, I ran the same command from my laptop and got the same result. As you can see though, my laptop doesn't have the issue.

 

[Blake]

1 hour ago, Frankenburger said:

Also, I ran the same command from my laptop and got the same result. As you can see though, my laptop doesn't have the issue.

It's DNS.

 

few things:

1. Run an "ipconfig /flushdns" to flush out old or stale DNS entires

2. Run "ipconfig /all" to view the configured DNS servers.

3. Nslookup doesn't need a -verify parameter.

4. Run "resolve-dnsname DESKTOP-8Q0UO6R" in powershell and lets see the results.

 

5. Might want to consider re-naming that Desktop as it's name sucks, O and 0 in it? good luck reading that at 3am.

[Frankenburger]

4 minutes ago, Blake said:

It's DNS.

 

few things:

1. Run an "ipconfig /flushdns" to flush out old or stale DNS entires

2. Run "ipconfig /all" to view the configured DNS servers.

3. Nslookup doesn't need a -verify parameter.

4. Run "resolve-dnsname DESKTOP-8Q0UO6R" in powershell and lets see the results.

 

5. Might want to consider re-naming that Desktop as it's name sucks, O and 0 in it? good luck reading that at 3am.

Flushing the DNS didn't fix the issue.

 

Here's what I get from powershell

 

[Blake]

1 hour ago, Frankenburger said:

Flushing the DNS didn't fix the issue.

 

Disable IPv6, Windows will use that (the AAA record), which isn't configured correctly by the looks of it, where as the IPv4 (a Record) looks to be correct now, after flushing DNS.

 

 

[Mikensan]

Run notepad as an administrator, open c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (file doesn't have an extension).

 

add to the bottom:

192.168.1.9 Desktop-8Q0UO6R

 

 

The proper way to fix this is to configure/manage the DNS on your router (192.168.1.1).

 

The reason your laptop works is because it's using NETBIOS - I'm not sure why the same isn't working on the desktop. But relying on NETBIOS isn't a good solution.

[Frankenburger]

I was able to fix the issue by rolling back to an earlier image of Windows. Looks like it was caused by a Windows update, like what happened to @ThatFlashCat's system.

 

Thank you all for the assistance.